For my first project of the uncanny I decided to experiment with developing super 8 film, collaborating with Andreas Leonardsen. This past summer I was in Amsterdam with Andreas and we went to a film shop to get some super 8 film. While I was there I thought they might have a Russian Lomo film developing tank. Coincidentally a previous costumer came in to return the tank I was looking for.  Part of the device was broken and needed to be fixed. The costumer got his money back and I ended up buying the tank for half price.

 

I have experience in developing black and white photos and I am a member of a Darkroom coop, so I had access to all the other materials I needed for the project. Andreas and I had seen some examples on the internet but couldn’t find any exact developing times for D76 developing solution. We ended up developing the film into a negative image because the process for getting a reversal or positive image was more involved and more expensive than we were willing to do. Developing the negative image on the film was relatively straight forward. First I wound the super 8 film onto the spool, while in the dark of course. Then we put the film in the developing solution (we used one part d76 to one part water) and agitated or spun the reel for thirty seconds every minute for 3 minutes. Washed the film with water for one minute and then put the film in the fix for 3 minutes, agitating every thirty seconds.  After that the we put the film in the film in the wash for 10 minutes and then let it dry in the drying closet for 45 minutes. We shot two rolls of super 8 filming with just the hope that we would get an exposure. These are the results.

After the film is on the reel, I wound it up on a proper spool so that it could be projected and transferred digitally. The image on the right is an example of how I transferred the super 8 to digital video. I projected the image onto the focus screen of this little box and then the images are reflected by a mirror inside of it and then filmed on the other side with a digital video camera.